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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Watercolor Review

I'm throwing in a little watercolor review here, while I'm off in Maine...In the window of the pigment storewhere I work part-time there are banks of display cases full of colored pigments. I've been wanting to record them and then come home and try to match the colors with paint.

First to match the pigments on my palette,which by the way, is an old enamel kitchen tray found on Ebay.And then to match the colors swatches on a test sheet of paper. The next step is to make a painting.

My watercolor teacher, David Dewey, used to say, the painting is first of all, set up on your palette. Get your colors down there first. I used to take a ton of pictures of his palette mixings.

Then put it down on the paper.

I'd love to select a few of these bottles and make a painting from just those colors...what's known as doing a "limited palette" painting.

Another Dewey trick was to use your dirty water to put the washes down on the paper.It's easier to see where the water is on the white paper if there are bits of pigment in the wash. For most watercolor painters painting with clean water is like religion.

Here's a watercolor palette I'd love to have. A client of Wendy BrandesJewelrydesigned this for herself using a poison ring bezel. Claus Oldenburg of the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture, said he does most of his idea sketching at the dinner table. Wouldn't this palette ring be a tremendous help painting in Maine?

16 comments:

David Dewey was your teacher? Wow! What a dream. I just pour over his book which was suggested by handprint, http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html

You make that palette look like fun. I use a half pan paintbox and mix on the page. Now you've got me wondering...that looks like a real dance on the palette. I am just about to paint my biggest painting 22x30 and I am really wondering how well this is going to work with my paintbox...maybe I will get a tray. I love to work on white porcelein it is just so darn heavy and fragile.

Great post, Carol! I love seeing all the test color swathes--they're so beautiful to me. That ring is great! Neat idea! I remember you saying David suggested using the old water to lay down washes--interesting.

Bless you for leaving town and giving my diet a break! My habit of sitting down for a nice PB read after dinner is killing my diet! You make a very NICE excuse! And thank you for posting this oldie but goodie! The colors are just so wonderful - time for a confession: While in NY, I hoofed it over to Kremer to see if the sample jars are really as wonderful as the photo - and they ARE! Can't believe they're out of the samplers!Enjoy your summer camp! And no ghost stories around the campfire, but somemores are OK!

So many *yummy* colors (at least these don't make me bolt for the fridge like your chocolate and macaron posts do!). Luuuurrrve the pigment jars.

The palette ring looks like a gadget for Super Painter (like Batman's belt of cool stuff - just in this case, in ring form :-). I think one may BE a superhero if one had one - just maybe without the cape.

I SOOO want one of those palette "poison" rings! I often use a paint brush as a chopstick-style holder to hold my hair up off my neck! Between paint brushes as hair accessories and rings that are really palette's I'd be set for painting any time I'm out and about!Wonderful idea!The Antiques Diva

Very cool post! I don't use watercolours... but I do some watercolour technique with acrylic... these are rally great pigaments! How fun to work in a paint shop... I think I would love that... we have nothing like that around sad to say... I guess I live in the wrong town!Have fun in Maine... can't wait to see what you paint!